Ray Cone, a former linebacker who personified Colorado football’s best spirit during one of the program’s worst times, was found dead near his Orlando, Fla., home Sunday. He was 48.

The family did not give a cause of death, although no foul play was suspected by Orlando police. Cone disappeared while on a bike ride after a morning playing basketball with a college-aged son, according to an e-mail sent by his widow, Trish, and forwarded by CU associate athletic director Dave Plati. He leaves five children.

A standout football and basketball player at Jefferson High School in Edgewater, Cone signed with then-CU football coach Chuck Fairbanks. Despite playing through losing seasons from 1980-82, the last under first-year coach Bill McCartney, Cone never lost support for the Buffs.

“He was such an encourager, and uplifter. It’s difficult to understand what happens in the mind and thoughts that take place,” said ex-CU teammate Don DeLuzio, who hired Cone for his Florida tile distributorship a few years ago. “He lived a life to make other people happy.”

DeLuzio, another Jefferson County star linebacker who played for the Buffs, remembered Cone as the team comedian. Cone and his brother, Marty, always had a gag during Nebraska week, once driving a small motorcycle through practice with Marty dressed as a Nebraska player. The brothers would dress for the old CU alumni games in “Saturday Night Live”-inspired “Coneheads.”

DeLuzio said he expects a memorial service to be held in Denver after Thanksgiving.

“He wanted to be everything right, as a husband or father. He had a strong marriage and five beautiful kids,” DeLuzio said.

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